If You Care
by movieexpert1978
Summary: Sequel to If You Please. What happens to Arcee after Megatron's brutal attack.


**Ok I started thinking about a sequel and hey a story line came into my head. This is not a nice story so be warned. The story does go through Operation: Bumbleebee Part 1 & 2, but my focus was mainly on Arcee for this story so I didn't go into too much detail about those episodes, but this is before Loose Cannons. I do not own Transformers Prime as they are owned by Hasbro. **

**If You Care **

_I took what I wanted._

That was the last thing Arcee heard before she passed out from the pain all over her body. Optimus could only stare at her broken body in horror as he slowly walked through the ground bridge with her small form in his arms.

"What is it…by the Allspark!" Ratchet whispered when he saw Arcee bleeding energon everywhere. Bumbleebee started to beep in a quick and high-pitch manner out of worry for his friend, while Bulkhead did the gentle thing of gently guiding him out of the sick-bay.

"Bulkhead keep him with you." Optimus said gently and the former Wrecker only nodded in understanding. "It was Megatron." He added so Bulkhead would understand more clearly. He nodded again and managed to get Bumbleebee out of sight. Ratchet didn't say a word as he set to work on Arcee's wounds because he knew exactly what had happened. He worked fast and efficiently as he wielded the torn metal closed to prevent more energon from escaping.

"Ratchet…"

"Her wounds aren't critical, but the loss of energon isn't helping. Her panel is intact with only some minor tears, although the same can't be said of her chest plates." Ratchet spoke without looking at Optimus as he kept repairing Arcee. That was the last place he looked at because he dreaded at what he might find. The medic took a deep breath before he looked at Arcee's spark chamber and his fears were confirmed. "Oh Primus no." Ratchet gasped. Optimus looked over him and saw what looked like a small red dot next to Arcee's spark, but Optimus knew that was no dot. It was the red light of another spark growing inside Arcee.

"He said he took what he wanted." Optimus said quietly into the air.

"Do you think I should..." Ratchet couldn't complete his question because his own spark refused to finish it.

"No Ratchet. That will be her choice when the time comes." Optimus answered strongly.

"We still will need to tell the others." Ratchet said more calmly.

"And Jack." Optimus added.

"Yes of course, and Jack."

Xxxxxxxxxx

Arcee woke from stasis just covered in pain. She moaned as she woke up because everything hurt. She blinked her optics a few times before she realized she was back at base, safe and sound, and away from the monster. She heard footsteps and looked to see Ratchet was next to her with Optimus behind him.

"Optimus…"

"Save your strength Arcee." Ratchet spoke first out of pure concern for her and she had to smile at that.

"Thanks Ratchet." She mumbled before she settled back into the berth.

"You only had minor tears on your plating and you will make a full recovery…physically." Ratchet said a little more quietly.

"I kept telling him to stop. He just kept growling at me. He wouldn't let go." Arcee cried as she sat up on the berth. Both mechs were by her side in an instant. Optimus gently rubbed her arm and was silently glad she didn't flinch at the contact.

"Arcee, none of us can say that we understand what happened, but what I do know is that from the bottom of all of our sparks that we are truly and deeply sorry about what happened to you." Optimus said gently. At his gentle voice Arcee couldn't hold back the tears that fell down her face as she cried into her servos. Optimus rubbed her back in comfort as Ratchet watched her. "I know this is not the best time, but can you tell us what happened? If you don't want to now we will respect your decision." Optimus asked gently again.

"It was just a simple patrol in the wood! Nothing to it!" She cried bitterly. "He just grabbed me out of nowhere and pinned me down. Then he…he…he raped me!" She cried again, trying to get the words out. She knew letting it out would release the pain inside her if she said the words right. "He went at my port and then my spark! I kept telling him to stop, but that only seemed to encourage him. I felt his rage inside of me. It was so strong. I felt so scared." She cried and she started to sob in Prime's arms.

"Arcee…there is something else that happened." Ratchet finally said when she had calmed down somewhat. She looked at him with watery optics. He let out a deep sigh before he spoke again.

"You are carrying."

Arcee froze in shock at the news. She was carrying the heir of the most despicable warlord they had ever known! Out of instinct she opened her chest plates to see for herself and saw the small red glow next to her own white light. She cried again and screamed into the air as it hit her with full force. She just cried on the berth for a long as her two friends just stayed to comfort her.

"Arcee, what do you want to do?" Optimus asked when she had finally stopped again and was breathing.

"I...I…I don't know actually." She whispered.

"You have all the time you need Arcee." Ratchet added for comfort.

"Do the others know?" She asked alert.

"No we haven't told anyone." Ratchet answered.

"I am going to tell Jack." She said strongly.

"What would you like to tell the others?" Optimus asked this time.

"I can't tell." Arcee said sadly. "Can-can you tell them? I…I just want to be alone and figure this out." She said quietly as she lifted her servos to her spark.

"Of course Arcee. Take as much time as you need." Optimus said as he rubbed her shoulder.

Xxxxxxxx

Arcee didn't know what to do with the…sparkling inside of her. She couldn't call it an abomination or a thing because it was growing inside of her. She was starting to wonder what the sparkling would be like. Would it be a mech or femme? Would it look like Megatron or would it look like her? Would it be a flyer like him or would it be a grounder like her? There were so many questions that started to flood her mind. She did the only thing she could do and curled up on her own berth to try and shut out her own thoughts. She couldn't go into stasis out of fear. She feared that the warlord would find her in her dreams. She feared he would take her even in the realm of her imagination. He was right when he said he took what he wanted, but she knew in deep down that she needed to keep moving. She had to recover and look towards tomorrow. She knew that she wouldn't forget though, she would never forget what happened.

Now she had to decide on what to do with the sparkling.

Xxxxxxxx

Everyone was supportive to her once they found the news. Jack took it the hardest because she was his closest friend. He hated the fact that she got hurt and she silently felt proud of how protective he was even though he was only human. That never stopped him anymore.

"Ratchet, can I talk to you for a moment?" She asked him after the children were dropped off at home.

"Of course Arcee." He said gently as he turned to her.

"I…I…I've decided to keep the sparkling." She finally said, making him blink in surprise. Then he did something unexpected.

Ratchet smiled.

"Congratulations Arcee. You're going to be a creator."

Xxxxxxxxx

The problem was that Megatron was on the move with the coordinates that Orion Pax gave of him for Project Iacon. First was the spark extractor that they managed to successfully take back to base. The next problem came when Bumblebee lost his T-cog. Mech had stolen it from him for something, but they didn't know what yet. The 'cons got another autobot weapon, what they didn't exactly know, until the 'cons appeared in the mountains trying to grab a weapon of the Primes. Knockout was holding and ancient shield as Breakdown and Bulkhead fought. Arcee had to laugh when Bulkhead knocked his rival out of the park or in his case, right on top of Knockout.

Then Megatron appeared.

"Bulkhead!" Arcee cried as they tried to advance, but Megatron stopped them with a wave of his cannon.

"Nu-uh-uhh" He teased, pointing it at Bulkhead's head. They still had their own weapons pointed as the other two 'cons hurried over to the ground bridge.

"I see that you have made a rapid recovery my dear femme." He said darkly to Arcee, who only growled in response. He laughed when Optimus stepped closer to her on the defense, before he left to return to his ship.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"Arcee, you should start to rest now. The sparkling should ride down into your panel soon with the protoform nearly completed." Ratchet said as things settled down.

"I know and I will now. I just couldn't sit still with everyone going out to fight the 'cons." Arcee chuckled.

"This is doctor's orders." He said sternly making her laugh again. The development of the protoform had gone smoothly so far and the sparkling turned out to be femme that was a grounder. Still the brief encounter with Megatron made Arcee shiver inside. She still had nightmares about the attack, but they were starting to die down ever since she talked to Optimus about what happened. It felt good to finally let it all out and be rid of the pain inside her. She could focus on the femme that she had to name soon. It still had two to three months left before it would be born and Arcee couldn't fight anymore because once the spark moved out of her own chamber it would slowly start to attach to the protoform. She would be showing that she was carrying. Usually carrying took about four and half to five months and Arcee was secretly glad for the break.

That night Megatron found her again. She was on Cybertron though, more or less as the planet was in ruins. She kept trying to run away from him, but he was flying over her just laughing, until finally he landed with a loud boom. She still kept trying to run, but he grabbed her and pinned her against the wall with her back facing him.

"Get away!" She screamed as she tried to get out of his large servos.

"You can never escape me femme." He growled into her audio as he pinned her arms to the wall. "You deserve every bit of it!" He snarled as he slammed her chest plates into the wall. Her armor started to crack with each hard hit until finally it shattered revealing her spark. He threw her to the ground and held her by her neck as he stared at her spark.

"No! Don't!" She cried fearing he might see the truth, but for the moment he was looking at her optics.

"You took him from me." He growled in such a calm tone the she just couldn't believe how reserved he was.

"Optimus…" She started.

"ORION!" He roared at her making her jump. "You took Orion from me! He was mine! He was always mine! ALWAYS!" He shouted at her. Then she realized what he meant.

"You loved Orion, but not Prime." She whispered making him freeze. She looked into his blood-red optics that were glowing with their infamous fury and then she remembered what he did. "But he never loved you." She spat at him. She didn't know if that was true or not, but she just wanted to hurt him. He snapped back into reality by roaring into the air and ready to slam his fist right on her spark and shatter it when he suddenly stopped. He looked and saw the small red spark next to hers and slowly reached out to touch it.

"No! Get away from her!" She screamed at him.

"Her…" He whispered in realization and wonder at the femme spark he had created inside her. He gently traced his claws over the small spark and Arcee flinched at the pain. When he gently touched her own spark she screamed in pain. Everything around her became blurry as pain erupted from her chest plates.

When she screamed again she realized that she was awake and the pain was real.

"OPIMUST! RATCHET! HELP!" She screamed into the air as the pain in her body was just unreal. Ratchet came in first and she continued to scream as he rushed her into sick bay with Optimus behind her. Something was terribly wrong. She tried to hold back her screams as Ratchet scanned her. "Raaatchet." She moaned at him. He held her servo in comfort as he spoke.

"The sparkling is coming." He said gravely.

"What? No! Aaaaahhhhhh!" She screamed in pain. The sparkling was coming too early. It was barely inside of its protofrom! How could it survive out in the open!

"Optimus I will need your help for this. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, I'm sorry to be blunt, but just stay out of the way." He ordered. "Optimus get all the life support material ready. We will need it. Actually, you two can get me some energon as the sparkling will need it." Ratchet said calmly to Bee and Bulk. They instantly reacted by running to the supply room. Arcee was moaning in pain as Ratchet slowly and gently pulled her up into a sitting position and pulled her legs up. He made sure her interface panel was covered with a sheet before he scanned her again. "The sparkling must have just entered the protofrom hours ago." He said to himself.

"It will..aaaaaahhhh….die if it comes…..aaaaaaaa…..out!" Arcee cried as she clenched at the medical berth.

"Arcee I promise you that I will do everything I can to make sure this sparkling lives." Ratchet said strongly. "I need you to open your panel." He added and she did so. When it opened the panel fluids started to leak out along with energon, but Ratchet could see that the sparkling was close to coming out. She heard footsteps and saw Bee and Bulk had returned with the energon. Optimus took it from them and started to put it into the life support machines so that it was ready to be used once the sparkling was attached to the cables. Bee was shaking bad as he walked up to Arcee, but he tried to be brave as he rubbed her back.

"Hi Bee." She wheezed out before pain hit her again.

"Arcee the sparkling is almost there. It will just be a few more contactions." Ratchet said gently. It was too late to hook her up to an IV and it might prove dangerous with the pain she was in. Bee was doing a steady hum to try and comfort her, so she tried to focus on the sound. She gave them both a weak smile when she saw that Bulkhead was right behind Bee, fully supporting her all the way. Another contraction hit her and she screamed again. She felt Prime's servo on her own and she gladly held it. Not once did he flinch at the tight grip she had on him.

"Ok Arcee, I need you to push." Ratchet said with a deep breath.

"No keep it in!" She moaned. She wanted to save her daughter's life.

"Arcee there is nothing else I can do. If the sparkling stays inside the protoform will be crushed inside your panel. You need to push." He urged her as gently as he could. He did his best to hold back his own tears as Arcee started to cry. Bee let out a beep of encouragement and Optimus followed suit.

"It's alright Arcee. You need to push." He said gently.

"Yeah you can do it 'Cee." Bulkhead added. She couldn't show it, but she felt so much warmth at the encouragement and the when Bulk said his nickname for her. She grunted and growled with she started to push.

"That's it Arcee. Just take a deep breath and count to three before another push." Ratchet encouraged as the sparkling started come. Arcee took a deep breath to try and ease the pain, but Bee did the counting for her.

"Arrrrggghhh!" She grunted again when she pushed harder this time.

"Just one more Arcee it's almost out!" Ratchet nearly shouted for joy. They were so close now. Arcee was a natural. She fell back against the wall to catch her breath before she finally came back up.

"One…two…three!" They all shouted for her before she screamed again as she pushed. The sparkling finally came out into Ratchet's servos and he froze, just like everyone else.

The sparkling wasn't crying.

"Why isn't she crying?" Arcee suddenly cried, snapping everyone from their trance. Ratchet finally started to cry when he saw that they were too late. "Ratchet what's wrong?" Arcee cried.

"Arcee…I…I…I'm so sorry." He cried. Bumblebee started to cry as well. He had never seen Ratchet cry before. Something was terribly wrong.

"Your daughter is dead."

"No." Arcee whimpered. Tears started to flow freely down her face as she started to sob with Bumblebee. Ratchet looked at the small sparkling in his servos and he realized how tiny the femme was. Optimus was silent for a moment before he walked over to his CMO.

"Let me." He said as he offered his servos for the sparkling. Ratchet's servos were shaking so bad when he handed over the dead child to the strong Prime. He was silent as he cleaned off the fragile metal around the sparkling. She looked like her mother with a small body and small limbs, but she had her father's color of silver. She was mostly silver with taints of light blue around the edges of her metal that was lined with a neutral black. She looked so beautiful and peaceful and one could almost think that she was sleepy. He wrapped the sparkling up and carried her over to her mother.

Arcee looked up at him and saw the bundle in his arm and she had to laugh. Opitmus did look a little cute carrying the sparking in his arms. He handed her over with a word and returned to Ratchet's side. The medic was trying to wipe away the tears that kept coming out of his optics. Arcee didn't fail to see that Prime's optics were glimmering in tears. She looked over the sparkling and laughed at how much she looked like her. Bee and Bulk looked at the sparkling in pure wonder in curiosity.

"She's so tiny." Bulkhead whispered.

"She's so beautiful" Bee beeped.

"Starlight. Her name is Starlight." Arcee said in promise.

It was only then that Optimus let the tears fall freely down his face.

Xxxxxxxx

She realized that she had to tell him. Even though he had brutally raped and beaten her, Megatron still had a right to know that his daughter was dead. She drove straight into deceptcion territory and surrendered without a fight. He arrived instantly with some Vehicons.

"Megatron I want to do this alone." She said sternly as she held the sparkling in her arms.

"And prey tell why should I do that?" He snapped.

"Please Megatron. I'm only going to ask you this once. If you cared." She said quietly. When he noticed the small bundle in her arms he took the hing.

"Leave us." He ordered and they slowly approached each other once they were alone. She handed over the bundle into his arms. He pulled back the fabric to see a small silver and blue femme sparkling in his arms. He gasped in shock and he felt everything drop around him. "A femme…" He whispered in shock.

"Your femme. Your daughter." Arcee explained. He looked at the two-wheeler and fell to his knees.

"What happened?"

"Her spark failed when it entered the protoform."

"I..I knew I felt something inside my spark, but I didn't know what." He said to her.

"If you cared you would have pursued it." Arcee said back to him, but it was sad.

"Yes, if I cared I would have known. If I cared so many thing could be different, but it is too late for me." Megatron said quietly as well. Arcee couldn't believe it when he looked up at her and saw tears coming down his face. He looked so broken when he looked at her. She almost thought he was pleading to her for something, but she didn't know what to do. She walked closer to him and gently touched his arm. It was only then that he started to cry at her feet. She started to cry to as they just held each other in their grief. Neither one didn't know how long they cried, but neither cared. They just sobbed for the loss of their child.

"Arcee…" She looked at Megatron in surprise when he said her name.

"Megatron." She answered.

"I do care about one thing though. Please, just…just tell me her name." He spoke between breaths.

"Starlight." His daughters name made him sob harder as he looked over the tiny sparkling in his arm.

"It's beautiful. It's perfect for her." He sobbed. A few more tears came down before he wiped them away. He placed a small kiss on his daughter's helm before giving her back to her mother. "Please forgive me." He begged once Arcee was holding her again. She stepped back in shock when Megatron, the almighty powerful ruler of the decepticons, was begging on his knees for her forgiveness.

"I don't know." She whispered and he slowly rose to his feet.

"I understand. All I ask is that you show me where you will bury her." He said gently. Just as he finished the ground bridge opened and Optimus stepped through calmly and composed. He knew what had happened, but he was there to protect her anyway.

"I'll keep in touch."

Xxxxxxxxxx

True to her word, Arcee told Megatron about the open field she buried Starlight in. She was by herself and waiting for him when he came through his own ground bridge. He silently walked over to the marked grave and stared at it for a moment. There was a willow tree at the foot of her grave.

"Jack spread seeds all over it so flowers could grow here." Arcee said to him.

"They will be beautiful…like her." He said as he faced her. "I'm sorry Arcee, but I have nothing to give." He said sadly, looking at his empty servos. Arcee boldly placed her servos in his.

"I gave her the earth. You can give her the stars." She whispered. His knees felt weak at the truth she told him. He went down on one knee and he kissed her servo.

"I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused you." He said sincerely. She gently traced her fingers over his large face and scarred skin. He savored all the gentle touch she gave him for he knew this would be the only night he would receive it.

"I forgive you." She whispered.

With those three words he gently reached up to her and gave her the kiss she rightfully deserved. It was full of love and apology for something he could never take back. He kissed her under the stars with the spirit of their daughter twinkling over them.

**Ok, I don't know any specific numbers for when a Cybertronian gets pregnant, so I just made up the numbers and made sure I go the general process right. So please don't burn me too bad if I got it wrong. Also, if there is another story out their with a sparkling named Starlight I am sorry, but I did not steal it because I didn't read your story. I just wanted the name to be positive consider her creation and her creators...and her color scheme. I made sure this story focused on Arcee as the last one was focused on Megatron. Please read and review. **


End file.
